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damitr (1795258) writes "With an expenditure upwards 1 billion dollars, Antilla of Mukesh Ambani situated in Mumbai is tagged to be the most expensive home in the world.Ambani's 27-storey, 400,000-square-foot Antilia, named after a mythical island in the Atlantic, tops the list with a value of over $1 billion. "The title of the most outrageously-expensive property in the world still belongs to Mukesh Ambani's Antilia in Mumbai," Forbes said. The house has six storeys of underground parking, three helicopter pads, and reportedly requires a staff of 600 for upkeep. The Business Standard article compares it with other buildings:"Putting Antilia's scale and cost into perspective, Forbes compared it to '7, World Trade Center', a 52-storey tower that stands near Ground Zero in Manhattan with 1.7 million square feet of office space, reportedly built for $2 billion."The amount of money spent apart, the first look at Antilla makes one wonder why would one spend so much money to build something so ugly?"Link to Original Source

damitr (1795258) writes "What do slashdotters recommend as a good standalone GPS device for field? I do not want to use tabs or phones as battery seems to be a major problem. The device should be capable of recording and offloading GPS tracks. Driving instructions and maps are not a necessity, a long battery is."

damitr (1795258) writes "We are in a process to launch a digital literacy program for youth. Which email provider(s) would slashdotters suggest for starters. Google mail is one of the obvious choices, but we do not want to promote just one company. And also there are concerns of privacy, and usability. Considering these issues, which email providers would you suggest for complete newbies?"

damitr (1795258) writes "...the Indian Army mistook Jupiter and Venus as unidentified flying intruders making nocturnal sorties from China into the skies above eastern Ladakh for over six months until astronomers brought their fears to ground, it has been disclosed.

Requested by the army, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, deputed two astronomers to Ladakh earlier this year to resolve the mystery of the two objects that the army had been observing in the sensitive border zone since August 2012."Link to Original Source

damitr (1795258) writes "The work of M.C. Escher needs no introduction. We have all learned to appreciate the impossibilities that this master of illusion's artwork presents to the layman's eye. Nevertheless, it may come as a surprise for some, but many of the so-called 'impossible' drawings of M. C. Escher can be realized as actual physical objects. These objects will resemble the Escher's drawing, of the same name, from a certain viewing direction. This work below presents some of these three-dimensional models that were designed and built using geometric modeling and computer graphics tools. Gershon Elber (http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~gershon/EscherForReal/) of Technion, Israel Institute of Technology designed a software which enables one to make physical models of the 'impossible' drawings and used 3D printers to print them. The two videos on youtube "Escher for real" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmr4HqjSSw4 and "Impossibly real"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMiuTMHUBiM make the story clear."

I agree to this.
Slashdot post for Future : More Researchers Moving On To Zotero!
It is not just for fun Elsevier have taken up Mendeley, soon your papers will be scrutinized whether they have been downloaded legally or you have an unauthorized copy of the same. And if found using unauthorized copies, you know what they did to Aaron.

damitr (1795258) writes "In a landmark judgement, India’s Supreme Court today rejected a patent plea by Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG for cancer drug Glivec, boosting the case for cheaper drugs for life-threatening diseases. http://www.firstpost.com/business/sc-rejects-novartis-patent-plea-on-blockbuster-cancer-drug-glivec-680460.html A patent on the new form could have give Novartis a 20-year monopoly on the drug.During the hearing, the apex court had questioned the pharma company on the high price of the cancer drug. A month's dose is around $ 2200 much higher than $150 which is the price of the generic drug. The firm had tried to dispel the impression that its drug would be beyond the reach of poor cancer patients, which sounds like familiar Newspeak . "The purpose is not to make money from the poor. This is not the purpose, but am I not entitled for patent for our drug? We are fighting the case on principle," senior advocate for the company. www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/novartis-plea-for-cancer-drug-patent-sc-verdict-tomorrow_844565.html If remains to be seen what the implications of this judgement are, and meanwhile Novartis had threatened that a refusal by India’s Supreme Court to grant patent protection for the medicine would have repercussions for multinational drug companies’ activities in the country, meaning they will be no longer giving new medicines in India. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c377e20a-99eb-11e2-83ca-00144feabdc0.html"

damitr writes "With a lot of fanfare the Indian Government had launched (http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/05/1711248/india-launches-35-tablet) a $35 tablet labelled as Aakash (The Sky). The project took a lot of scepticism, but the government went ahead with the project. But delays in production and deployment of the tablet means that the project is almost shelved. The manufacturer has been unable to supply the required 100,000 units deadline for which is March 31 2013 http://www.zdnet.com/in/india-sets-march-31-deadline-for-aakash-2-delivery-7000013135/. The new minister Pallam Raju who took over the ministry looking after the project says: "Aakash is only a tablet... there are other such devices as well. While work will continue to develop it and increase its productivity, manufacturing is obviously a problem," The $35 tablet that now stares at an uncertain future. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hrd-may-dump-aakash-tablet-hints-pallam.../1092213/ And in a few days time we will know what happens to the project."

PrithV has been designed to perform basic tasks like emails, web browsing, media and office applications. The company intends to offer their solutions to Universities and Schools worldwide and empower every student with a PC enabled knowledge.""Link to Original Source

damitr writes "An article in PLoS One shows the connection between math anxiety and anticipation of pain""Math can be difficult, and for those with high levels of mathematics-anxiety (HMAs), math is associated with tension, apprehension, and fear. But what underlies the feelings of dread effected by math anxiety? Are HMAs’ feelings about math merely psychological epiphenomena, or is their anxiety grounded in simulation of a concrete, visceral sensation – such as pain – about which they have every right to feel anxious? We show that, when anticipating an upcoming math-task, the higher one’s math anxiety, the more one increases activity in regions associated with visceral threat detection, and often the experience of pain itself (bilateral dorso-posterior insula). Interestingly, this relation was not seen during math performance, suggesting that it is not that math itself hurts; rather, the anticipation of math is painful. Our data suggest that pain network activation underlies the intuition that simply anticipating a dreaded event can feel painful. ""Link to Original Source

Edward Tufte in Cognitive Style of Powerpoint has a lot to say about slides their format and content and is against their indiscriminate uset. This is from a perspective of an information designer.
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp
"Alas, slideware often reduces the analytical quality of presentations. In particular, the popular PowerPoint templates (ready-made designs) usually weaken verbal and spatial reasoning, and almost always corrupt statistical analysis. What is the problem with PowerPoint? And how can we improve our presentations?"